The future of insurance

How does a major European-based insurance company establish a leading position in the mature, highly regulated and competitive North America employee benefits and financial services market?

You start by tossing out every aspect of the conventional playbook and approach the opportunity with the nerve of a gunslinger startup. You place a premium on the kinds of innovation that can penetrate and shake up a calcified marketplace. And, you engage an innovation partner that can help you reinvent the business, from service and products to tools and experiences. A partner like Lippincott.

High-impact innovations for brokers in employee benefits

Unburdened by the legacy IT systems and entrenched processes of the other major players, our client was in a position to work from a clean slate and to take advantage of rapid development to build the perfect beast — starting with the critical broker experience.

Lippincott led prototype exploration and development with a pinpoint goal: engage prospective brokers in high-impact demonstrations of what it would be like to work with our client. Through the innovative use of technology, we created a never before seen digital product that automated, personalized and optimized every stage of the broker experience.

The digital interface streamlines collaboration between company, brokers and employees. A personalized portal for mobile and tablet delivers real-time compensation data displayed in stylized graphs so that brokers can see at a glance where their book of business stands. The portal makes it easy to access product and compliance information and track clients through its location-based services and social media data.

The technology also enables creation of rich, custom online proposals, a feature that transitions to customer-specific microsites for managing benefits post conversion. The easy-to-use tool eliminates inefficiencies, enhances transparency and makes it easier for brokers to service and sell.

Rebuilding consumer benefits with AI

On the heels of the new broker experience prototype, Lippincott was awarded the lead innovation role for the consumer benefits recommendation experience. As consumers ourselves, we knew the complexities of the benefits market and had clear ideas on how to make it better.

We took the entire process online and utilized AI technology to create a more human and personalized experience, delivering a customized insurance vision with a highly personalized narrative.

Our design was a simple and engaging interface that uses real life examples (such as the implications of breaking a leg and not being able to drive to work) to demonstrate how each of the benefits work together. It included breakdowns of out of pocket expenses and recommendations on how to avoid gaps in protection. This personalized experience ensures customers feel confident in their choices and cared for by their insurer.

Crystalizing a vision for customer experience leadership

Brokers are often the gatekeepers to the consumer market. If they don’t know about your product, consumers won’t find it. And the blunt reality is also that if they don’t like your experience, they don’t sell your product.

A critical need for our client was a way to explain to brokers why their offering was better than others. For this, Lippincott architected a purpose strategy and guiding principles that emphasized our client’s differentiating attributes — people and technology. With these in place, the company was able to align every effort and clearly tell brokers the story of a customer experience leader.

Rebuilding the 401(k) experience with design thinking

Lippincott laid out the 401(k) customer experience in its entirety, using extensive customer and employee research to understand each touchpoint’s feasibility and its impact on the customer and on the business’s bottom line. Critically, our process identified the online experience and customer onboarding as two differentiating opportunities. Working closely with our client’s internal teams, the result was a prototype that dramatically improves each experience path.

Armed with these innovative offers, the company continues to shift expectations within a highly competitive market while attracting the very best brokers to work with the firm. And together, we continue to work with them on new innovations, identifying opportunities across the insurance ecosystem primed for disruption.